The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-04


posed result To my own mind
not one of the demonstrations of wise de
sign 10 be found in the pages of Paley arC
of the Bridgewater Treatses is so impress
sive and conclusive as the divine oppOrtune
ness of the great events in the history of oul
own country.
SOME AMERICAN EVENTS.
''There was the fitness of time in the dis
covery of America-that this mystery, hid
den from the ancient world, dreamed OF
only in the visions of poets, or in the more
than poetic Vaccinations of Plato, should
be disclosed not until tho dawn before the
daybreak of the sixteenth century.
Discovered n century earlier, the new
world WOULD not have been a New
world, but only a replica of the old world,
with the old customs and institutions
Not less significant of divine purpose is
the timeliness of the invention of the steam
boat-an event easily within the memory Of
men now living. If this had taken place
hundred years-ifty years-earlier, the
Mississippi valley, and all the West beyond,
to the Pacific, would have been another
Canada, or another Mexico See how God
works, according TO plans of his own, CON
founding, bringing to naught the most far
! reaching plans of human craftsmanship.
Contrast the unconcerted, hap-haZard
plantation of the English colonies along the
seaboard, with the sublime schemes of
Western empire matured in the minds of
| French statesmen and French eccle-
siastics, which stretched the long cor
don of military posts and mission stations
all the way through the continent along the
| course of the great rivers, from the mouth
of the st. Lawrence to the mouth of the
| Mississippi. Never was plan of temporal
and spiritual empire more magniicently
conceived, more sagaciously planned more
heroically pursued The hardy cour-
| Of ho
devoted lives and martyr-deaths of the
| French Jesuit missionaries are not surpassed
in history. They were laying the
| foundations of vastly extended,
| firmly concatenated empire, before
whose growth the poor and slender
line of English colonies along the coast,
without common organization or mutual
sympathy, of diverse creeds and aims, must
presently be crowded into the sea. One
thing only .hindered The great rivers that
were the axis of this imperial system were
practically unnavigable against the current.
The French colonies languished. Canada
fell under British rule.
THE vICIssITUDEs OF WAR.
"In the vicissitudes of war, the Mississippi
valley was transferred TO the American re
public by tho louisiana purchase; and then,
and not till then, by the invention of
Robert Fulton these resistless waters
that bore freely in either direction the fam
lilies of adventurous pioneers and the pro
duCe of their acres. If steam transporta-
ton had been invented fifty years later the
West would have remained wilderness; if
fifty years earlier, you and | might have
been to-day the subjects of a French mon
arch or the citizens of French republic.
81 can only make passing allusion to a
less important but more impressive exam
pie of the same fitting of the event to the
time, in the presence of the gold of Califor-
MIA hidden from mems knowledge through
the long period of the Spanish and Mexican
occupation, and then suddenly disclosed to
create "A nation in a day on the Pacific
slope, as soon as the land had passed into the
possession of the United States.
AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR.
81 would not venture TO explore the more
recent and exciting pages of our his
tory for further proofs of the divine timeli-
ness of great events; the preachers of a flu
ture generation will find them there in sin
gular abundance. But there is one Incl
dent of the civil war to which
| may safely refer as the sign
of Gods guiding power and presence in our
history; for it was the deadly, insufferable
humiliation of that cause against which you
were arrayed, and to which | was devoted
with every Judgment of my mind every
|
of my soul. On the morning of that Sunday
twenty-six years ago, when to us at the
North the news was coming in from hour
to hour of the triumphant advance las we
fondly thought toward the first battle of
Manassas, there was no sound
from any quarter but of tri-
umph and hope the retreat of the
opposing army, the open way to Richmond,
the speedy end of the war. But well re-
member the serious, prophetic tone of my
fathers voice for am the son of prophet
when he said, Il do not see how the mani
fest purpose of God in this war is going to
DE accomplished unless we are disaStrously
beaten in this battle
well, we were disastrously beaten.
There was an anguish of almost despair
through the homes of the North, and bitter
tears on the cheeks of women and of men.
not for the dead only that should
not return, but for the cause that
we loved, for the whole country,
for whose common interests, in all its sec
tions we were honestly contendng. And
the purpose of God in the war was accom-
plShed. And to-day the brave men from
South and North who are joining hands at
Gettysburg over the accomplished purpose
of that awful field may give united thanks
as well for the wise will of God in the de
feat and rout of the Union armies at
Manassas.
Thus I have attempted to interpret and
| apply the lesson of the book of Judges and
of all the Bible histories to the course of
our own history, and to trace therein the
evidences of Gods mighty power and of the
purpose of his eternal WISDOM
LEFT THE CHURCH.
When the speaker pronounced the words.
he quoted, "Oh, my country, what a ca
lamity it was when the asSaSsin'S bullet
struck down Abraham Lincoln" there
was aprofound stiffness which was suddenly
broken. Mr.. George S. Gray, who for
! forty-tive years has been a member of the
church, arose and left the church, but the
doctor continued TO the close of his sermon.
1t was not long after the services closed
| before il became known that the sermon
! had caused Il sensation, and all sorts of
rumors were bruited abroad. DR.. Bacon
| was found in his study in the afternoon and
he was asked his idea of the effect of the
sermon. Before replying, he turned inter
! viewer, and enquired what were the reports
on the street. He was told that there were
tales Of many Of his congregation rising
| and leaving the church, of great indigna-
! ton at the sermon. He then replied that
! he saw no one leave the church that the CON
| gregation was very attentive, deeply and rev.
! erently attentive, he thought He wished to
! say once and for all that he did not wish the
! congregation of that church 10 accept him
| rs us pastor under any misrepresentation as
| 10 what he is'or what his opinions are He
has very decided opinions and expresses
them. He supposed that the sermon was of